Pulo Condore

THEY GO OFF PULO CONDORE TO LIE THERE

By now, we did not have much time to stay in Luzon and so we decided to:

• sail to Pulo Condore, a little parcel of islands on the coast of Cambodia.
• carry our booty with us and there, careen if we could find any convenient place for it
• return to Manila by the latter end of May and wait for the Acapulco ship that comes about that time.

By our charts (which we were guided by, being strangers to these parts) this seemed to us then to be a place out of the way where we might lie snug for a while, and wait the time of returning for our prey. For we avoided as much as we could the going to lie by at any great place of commerce lest we should become too much exposed, and perhaps be assaulted by a force greater than our own.

So, having set our prisoners ashore, we sailed from Luconia the 26th day of February, with the wind east-north-east and fair weather, and a brisk gale. We were in latitude 14 degrees north when we began to steer away for Pulo Condore, and we steered south by west.

THE SHOALS OF PRACEL, ETC.

In our way thither we went pretty near the shoals of Pracel and other shoals which are very dangerous. We were very much afraid of them but escaped them without so much as seeing them, only at the very south end of the Pracel shoals we saw three little sandy islands or spots of sand standing just above water within a mile of us.

PULO CONDORE.

On March 13 we saw Condore island. The 14th day about noon we anchored on the north side of the island against a sandy bay two mile from the shore, in ten fathom clean hard sand, with both ship and prize.

Pulo Condore is the principal of a heap of islands and the only inhabited one of them. They lie in latitude 8 degrees 40 minutes north, and about twenty leagues south and by east from the mouth of the river of Cambodia. These islands lie so near together that at a distance they appear to be but one island.

Two of these islands are pretty large and of a good height, they may be seen fourteen or fifteen leagues at sea; the rest are but little spots. The biggest of the two (which is the inhabited one) is about four or five leagues long and lies east and west. It is not above three mile broad at the broadest place, in most places not above a mile wide.

The other large island is about three mile long and half a mile wide. This island stretches north and south. It is so conveniently placed at the west end of the biggest island that between both there is formed a very commodious harbour. The entrance of this harbour is on the north side where the two islands are near a mile asunder.

There are three or four small keys and a good deep channel between them and the biggest island. Towards the south end of the harbour the two islands do in a manner close up, leaving only a small passage for boats and canoes. There are no more islands on the north side but five or six on the south side of the great island. See the Table.

The mould of these islands for the biggest part is blackish and pretty deep, only the hills are somewhat stony. The eastern part of the biggest island is sandy yet all clothed with trees of divers sorts. The trees do not grow so thick as I have seen them in some places, but they are generally large and tall and fit for any use.

THE TAR-TREE.

There is one sort of tree much larger than any other on this island and which I have not seen anywhere else. It is about three or four foot diameter in the body, from whence is drawn a sort of clammy juice, which being boiled a little becomes perfect tar; and if you boil it much it will become hard as pitch. It may be put to either use; we used it both ways, and found it to be very serviceable.

The way that they get this juice is by cutting a great gap horizontally in the body of the tree half through, and about a foot from the ground; and then cutting the upper part of the body aslope inwardly downward, till in the middle of the tree it meets with the traverse cutting or plain. In this plain horizontal semicircular stump they make a hollow like a basin, that may contain a quart or two. Into this hole the juice which drains from the wounded upper part of the tree falls; from whence you must empty it every day. It will run thus for some months and then dry away, and the tree will recover again.

The fruit-trees that nature has bestowed on these isles are mangoes; and trees bearing a sort of grape, and other trees bearing a kind of wild or bastard nutmegs. These all grow wild in the woods and in very great plenty.

THE MANGO.

The mangoes here grow on trees as big as apple-trees: those at Fort St. George are not so large. The fruit of these is as big as a small peach but long and smaller towards the top: it is of a yellowish colour when ripe; it is very juicy, and of a pleasant smell and delicate taste. When the mango is young they cut them in two pieces and pickle them with salt and vinegar in which they put some cloves of garlic. This is an excellent sauce and much esteemed; it is called mango-achar.

Achar I presume signifies sauce. They make in the East Indies, especially at Siam and Pegu, several sorts of achar, as of the young tops of bamboos, etc., bamboo-achar and mango-achar are most used. The mangoes were ripe when we were there (as were also the rest of these fruits) and they have then so delicate a fragrancy that we could smell them out in the thick woods, if we had but the wind of them, while we were a good way from them and could not see them; and we generally found them out this way. Mangoes are common in many places of the East Indies; but I did never know any grow wild only at this place. These, though not so big as those I have seen at Achin and at Madras or Fort St. George are yet every whit as pleasant as the best sort of their garden mangoes.

GRAPE-TREE.

The grape-tree grows with a straight body of a diameter about a foot or more, and has but few limbs or boughs. The fruit grows in clusters all about the body of the tree, like the jack, durian, and cocoa fruits. There are of them both red and white. They are much like such grapes as grow on our vines both in shape and colour; and they are of a very pleasant winy taste. I never saw these but on the two biggest of these islands; the rest had no tar-trees, mangoes, grape-trees, nor wild nutmegs.

THE WILD OR BASTARD-NUTMEG.

The wild nutmeg-tree is as big as a walnut-tree; but it does not spread so much. The boughs are gross and the fruit grows among the boughs as the walnut and other fruits. This nutmeg is much smaller than the true nutmeg and longer also. It is enclosed with a thin shell, and a sort of mace, encircling the nut within the shell. This bastard nutmeg is so much like the true nutmeg in shape that at our first arrival here we thought it to be the true one; but it has no manner of smell nor taste.

THEIR ANIMALS.

The animals of these islands are some hogs, lizards and iguanas; and some of those creatures mentioned in Chapter 11 which are like but much bigger than the iguanas.

Here are many sorts of birds, as parrots, parakeets, doves and pigeons. Here are also a sort of wild cocks and hens: they are much like our tame fowl of that kind; but a great deal less, for they are about the bigness of a crow. The cocks do crow like ours but much more small and shrill; and by their crowing we do first find them out in the woods where we shoot them. Their flesh is very white and sweet.

There are a great many limpets and mussels, and plenty of green turtle.

OF THE MIGRATION OF THE TURTLE FROM PLACE TO PLACE.

And upon this mention of turtle again I think it not amiss to add some reasons to strengthen the opinion that I have given concerning these creatures removing from place to place. I have said in Chapter 5 that they leave their common feeding-places and go to places a great way from thence to lay, as particularly to the island Ascension.

Now I have discoursed with some since that subject was printed who are of opinion that when the laying-time is over they never go from thence, but lie somewhere in the sea about the island, which I think is very improbable: for there can be no food for them there, as I could soon make appear; as particularly from hence, that the sea about the isle of Ascension is so deep as to admit of no anchoring but at one place, where there is no sign of grass: and we never bring up with our sounding-lead any grass or weeds out of very deep seas, but sand or the like only.

But if this be granted, that there is food for them, yet I have a great deal of reason to believe that the turtle go from hence; for after the laying-time you shall never see them, and wherever turtle are you will see them rise and hold their head above water to breathe once in seven or eight minutes, or at longest in ten or twelve. And if any man does but consider how fish take their certain seasons of the year to go from one sea to another this should not seem strange; even fowls also having their seasons to remove from one place to another.

These islands are pretty well watered with small brooks of fresh water that run flush into the sea for ten months in the year. The latter end of March they begin to dry away, and in April you shall have none in the brooks but what is lodged in deep holes; but you may dig wells in some places. In May when the rain comes the land is again replenished with water and the brooks run out into the sea.

THE COMMODIOUS SITUATION OF PULO CONDORE; ITS WATER, AND ITS COCHIN-CHINESE INHABITANTS

These islands lie very commodiously in the way to and from Japan, China, Manila, Tonquin, Cochin-china, and in general all this most easterly coast of the Indian continent; whether you go through the Straits of Malacca, or the Straits of Sunda between Sumatra and Java: and one of them you must pass in the common way from Europe or other parts of the East Indies unless you mean to fetch a great compass round most of the East India Islands, as we did.

Any ship in distress may be refreshed and recruited here very conveniently; and besides ordinary accommodations be furnished with masts, yards, pitch and tar. It might also be a convenient place to usher in a commerce with the neighbouring country of Cochin-china, and forts might be built to secure a factory; particularly at the harbour, which is capable of being well fortified.

This place therefore being upon all these accounts so valuable, and withal so little known, I have here inserted a draft of it, which I took during our stay there.

THE MALAYAN TONGUE.

Its people are by nation Cochin-chinese, as they told us, for one of them spoke good Malayan: which language we learnt a smattering of, and some of us so as to speak it pretty well, while we lay at Mindanao; and this is the common tongue of trade and commerce (though it be not in several of them the native language) in most of the East India Islands, being the Lingua Franca, as it were, of these parts. I believe it is the vulgar tongue at Malacca, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo; but at Celebes, the Philippine Islands, and the Spice Islands it seems borrowed for the carrying on of trade.

The inhabitants of Pulo Condore are but a small people in stature, well enough shaped, and of a darker colour than the Mindanayans. They are pretty long-visaged; their hair is black and straight, their eyes are but small and black, their noses of a mean bigness, and pretty high, their lips thin, their teeth white, and little mouths.

They are very civil people but extraordinary poor. Their chiefest employment is to draw the juice of those trees that I have described to make tar. They preserve it in wooden troughs; and when they have their cargo they transport it to Cochin-china, their mother country. Some others of them employ themselves to catch turtle, and boil up their fat to oil, which they also transport home. These people have great large nets with wide meshes to catch the turtle. The Jamaica turtlers have such; and I did never see the like nets but at Jamaica and here.

THE CUSTOM OF PROSTITUTING THEIR WOMEN IN THESE COUNTRIES, AND IN GUINEA.

They are so free of their women that they would bring them aboard and offer them to us; and many of our men hired them for a small matter. This is a custom used by several nations in the East Indies, as at Pegu, Siam, Cochin-china, and Cambodia, as I have been told. It is used at Tonquin also to my knowledge; for I did afterwards make a voyage thither, and most of our men had women aboard all the time of our abode there. In Africa also, on the coast of Guinea, our merchants, factors, and seamen that reside there have their black misses. It is accounted a piece of policy to do it; for the chief factors and captains of ships have the great men’s daughters offered them, the mandarins’ or noblemen’s at Tonquin, and even the king’s wives in Guinea; and by this sort of alliance the country people are engaged to a greater friendship: and if there should arise any difference about trade or anything else which might provoke the natives to seek some treacherous revenge (to which all these heathen nations are very prone) then these Delilahs would certainly declare it to their white friends, and so hinder their countrymen’s design.

THE IDOLATRY HERE, AT TONQUIN, AND AMONG THE CHINESE SEAMEN, AND OF A PROCESSION AT FORT ST. GEORGE.

These people are idolaters.

There are a few scattering houses and plantations on the great island, and a small village on the south side of it where there is a little idol-temple, and an image of an elephant, about five foot high and in bigness proportionable, placed on one side of the temple; and a horse not so big, placed on the other side of it; both standing with their heads towards the south. The temple itself was low and ordinary, built of wood and thatched like one of their houses; which are but very meanly.

The images of the horse and the elephant were the most general idols that I observed in the temples of Tonquin when I travelled there. There were other images also, of beasts, birds and fish. I do not remember I saw any human shape there; nor any such monstrous representations as I have seen among the Chinese. Wherever the Chinese seamen or merchants come (and they are very numerous all over these seas) they have always hideous idols on board their junks or ships, with altars, and lamps burning before them. These idols they bring ashore with them: and beside those they have in common every man has one in his own house. Upon some particular solemn days I have seen their bonzies, or priests, bring whole armfuls of painted papers and burn them with a great deal of ceremony, being very careful to let no piece escape them. The same day they killed a goat which had been purposely fatting a month before; this they offer or present before their idol, and then dress it and feast themselves with it. I have seen them do this in Tonquin, where I have at the same time been invited to their feasts; and at Bencoolen in the isle of Sumatra they sent a shoulder of the sacrificed goat to the English, who ate of it, and asked me to do so too; but I refused.

When I was at Madras, or Fort St. George, I took notice of a great ceremony used for several nights successively by the idolaters inhabiting the suburbs: both men and women (these very well clad) in a great multitude went in solemn procession with lighted torches, carrying their idols about with them. I knew not the meaning of it. I observed some went purposely carrying oil to sprinkle into the lamps to make them burn the brighter. They began their round about 11 o’clock at night and, having paced it gravely about the streets till two or three o’clock in the morning, their idols were carried with much ceremony into the temple by the chief of the procession, and some of the women I saw enter the temple, particularly. Their idols were different from those of Tonquin, Cambodia, etc., being in human shape.

THEY REFIT THEIR SHIP

We arrived at these islands on March 14, 1687. The next day we searched about for a place to careen in; and the 16th day we entered the harbour and immediately provided to careen. Some men were set to fell great trees to saw into planks; others went to unrigging the ship; some made a house to put our goods in and for the sail-maker to work in. The country people resorted to us and brought us of the fruits of the island, with hogs, and sometimes turtle; for which they received rice in exchange, which we had a shipload of, taken at Manila. We bought of them also a good quantity of their pitchy liquor, which we boiled, and used about our ship’s bottom. We mixed it first with lime which we made here, and it made an excellent coat and stuck on very well.

We stayed in this harbour from the 16th day of March till the 16th of April; in which time we made a new suit of sails of the cloth that was taken in the prize. We cut a spare main-top-mast and sawed plank to sheath the ship’s bottom; for she was not sheathed all over at Mindanao, and that old plank that was left on then we now ripped off and clapped on new.

TWO OF THEM DIE OF POISON THEY TOOK AT MINDANAO.

While we lay here two of our men died, who were poisoned at Mindanao, they told us of it when they found themselves poisoned and had lingered ever since. They were opened by our doctor, according to their own request before they died, and their livers were black, light and dry, like pieces of cork.

THEY TAKE IN WATER, AND A PILOT FOR THE BAY OF SIAM.

Our business being finished here we left the Spanish prize taken at Manila, and most of the rice, taking out enough for ourselves, and on the 17th day we went from hence to the place where we first anchored, on the north side of the great island, purposely to water; for there was a great stream when we first came to the island, and we thought it was so now. But we found it dried up, only it stood in holes, two or three hogsheads or a tun in a hole: therefore we did immediately cut bamboos and made spouts through which we conveyed the water down to the seaside by taking it up in bowls, and pouring it into these spouts or troughs. We conveyed some of it thus near half a mile. While we were filling our water Captain Read engaged an old man, one of the inhabitants of this island, the same who I said could speak the Malayan language, to be his pilot to the Bay of Siam; for he had often been telling us that he was well acquainted there, and that he knew some islands there where there were fishermen lived who he thought could supply us with salt-fish to eat at sea; for we had nothing but rice to eat. The easterly monsoon was not yet done; therefore it was concluded to spend some time there and then take the advantage of the beginning of the western monsoon to return to Manila again.

The 21st day of April 1687 we sailed from Pulo Condore, directing our course west by south for the Bay of Siam. We had fair weather and a fine moderate gale of wind at east-north-east.

PULO UBI; AND POINT OF CAMBODIA.

The 23rd day we arrived at Pulo Ubi, or the island Ubi. This island is about 40 leagues to the westward of Pulo Condore; it lies just at the entrance of the Bay of Siam, at the south-west point of land that makes the bay; namely, the Point of Cambodia. This island is about seven or eight leagues round, and it is higher land than any of Pulo Condore isles. Against the south-east part of it there is a small key, about a cable’s length from the main island. This Pulo Ubi is very woody and it has good water on the north side, where you may anchor; but the best anchoring is on the east side against a small bay; then you will have the little island to the southward of you.

TWO CAMBODIAN VESSELS.

At Pulo Ubi we found two small barks laden with rice. They belonged to Cambodia, from whence they came not above two or three days before, and they touched here to fill water. Rice is the general food of all these countries, therefore it is transported by sea from one country to another, as corn in these parts of the world. For in some countries they produce more than enough for themselves and send what they can spare to those places where there is but little.

The 24th day we went into the Bay of Siam: this is a large deep bay, of which, and of this kingdom, I shall at present speak but little, because I design a more particular account of all this coast, to wit, of Tonquin, Cochin-china, Siam, Champa, Cambodia, and Malacca, making all the most easterly part of the continent of Asia, lying south of China: but to do it in the course of this voyage would too much swell this volume; and I shall choose therefore to give a separate relation of what I know or have learnt of them, together with the neighbouring parts of Sumatra, Java, etc., where I have spent some time.

ISLES IN THE BAY OF THAILAND

We ran down into the Bay of Siam till we came to the islands that our Pulo Condore pilot told us of, which lie about the middle of the bay: but, as good a pilot as he was, he run us a-ground; yet we had no damage. Captain Read went ashore at these islands, where he found a small town of fishermen; but they had no fish to sell and so we returned empty.

THE TIGHT VESSELS AND SEAMEN OF THE KINGDOM OF CHAMPA.

We had yet fair weather and very little wind; so that, being often becalmed, we were till the 13th day of May before we got to Pulo Ubi again. There we found two small vessels at an anchor on the east side: they were laden with rice and lacquer, which is used in japanning of cabinets. One of these came from Champa, bound to the town of Malacca, which belongs to the Dutch who took it from the Portuguese; and this shows that they have a trade with Champa. This was a very pretty neat vessel, her bottom very clean and curiously coated, she had about forty men all armed with cortans, or broadswords, lances, and some guns, that went with a swivel upon their gunwale. They were of the idolaters, natives of Champa, and some of the briskest, most sociable, without fearfulness or shyness, and the most neat and dextrous about their shipping, of any such I have met with in all my travels. The other vessel came from the river of Cambodia and was bound towards the Straits of Malacca. Both of them stopped here, for the westerly-winds now began to blow, which were against them, being somewhat bleated.

STORMS

We anchored also on the east side, intending to fill water. While we lay here we had very violent wind at south-west and a strong current setting right to windward. The fiercer the wind blew, the more strong the current set against it. This storm lasted till the 20th day, and then it began to abate.

The 21st day of May we went back from hence towards Pulo Condore.

A CHINESE JUNK FROM PALIMBAM IN SUMATRA. THEY COME AGAIN TO PULO CONDORE.

In our way we overtook a great junk that came from Palimbam, a town on the island Sumatra: she was full laden with pepper which they bought there and was bound to Siam: but, it blowing so hard, she was afraid to venture into that bay, and therefore came to Pulo Condore with us, where we both anchored May the 24th. This vessel was of the Chinese make, full of little rooms or partitions, like our well-boats. I shall describe them in the next chapter. The men of this junk told us that the English were settled on the island Sumatra, at a place called Sillabar; and the first knowledge we had that the English had any settlement on Sumatra was from these.

A BLOODY FRAY WITH A MALAYAN VESSEL.

When we came to an anchor we saw a small bark at an anchor near the shore; therefore Captain Read sent a canoe aboard her to know from whence they came; and, supposing that it was a Malayan vessel, he ordered the men not to go aboard for they are accounted desperate fellows and their vessels are commonly full of men who all wear cressets, or little daggers, by their sides. The canoe’s crew, not minding the captain’s orders, went aboard, all but one man that stayed in the canoe. The Malayans, who were about 20 of them, seeing our men all armed, thought that they came to take their vessel; therefore at once, on a signal given, they drew out their cressets and stabbed five or six of our men before they knew what the matter was. The rest of our men leapt overboard, some into the canoe and some into the sea, and so got away. Among the rest one Daniel Wallis leapt into the sea who could never swim before nor since; yet now he swam very well a good while before he was taken up. When the canoes came aboard Captain Read manned two canoes and went to be revenged on the Malayans; but they seeing him coming did cut a hole in the vessel’s bottom and went ashore in their boat. Captain Read followed them but they ran into the woods and hid themselves. Here we stayed ten or eleven days for it blew very hard all the time.

THE SURGEON’S AND THE AUTHOR’S DESIRES OF LEAVING THEIR CREW.

While we stayed here Herman Coppinger our surgeon went ashore, intending to live here; but Captain Read sent some men to fetch him again. I had the same thoughts, and would have gone ashore too but waited for a more convenient place. For neither he nor I, when we were last on board at Mindanao, had any knowledge of the plot that was laid to leave Captain Swan and run away with the ship; and, being sufficiently weary of this mad crew, we were willing to give them the slip at any place from whence we might hope to get a passage to an English factory. There was nothing else of moment happened while we stayed here.